Black Adam star Dwayne Johnson disputes recent reports that the film didn't make its returns at the box office.
According to a tweet from Johnson, the film is poised to make $52M-$72M in profit. In total, Black Adam has nearly $400 million worldwide at the box office, tying it with Shazam! 's debut in 2019. Johnson compared the project to the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Captain America: The First Avenger, which raked in $370 million.
Johnson's claims come a day after reports indicated Black Adam had an uphill climb to break even, with Warner Bros. at risk of losing upwards of $100 million. According to those reports, the film's $387 million worldwide profits to a $195 million budget, coupled with marketing and other costs, meant the film would struggle to break even. Some of these costs included an $80 million marketing campaign, which fell $20 million short of Warner Bros. pre-COVID plans for advertising the film.
Black Adam Starts a New Era for the DCEU
Black Adam's box office drew comparisons to Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, which released a couple of weeks after the DC flick. The latter movie quickly surpassed Black Adam in theaters and has made nearly double its take, with $732 million worldwide and growing. Johnson has been quick to point out to fans and critics that the DC Extended Universe is still in the growing stages, nowhere near the size of the MCU. When fans and media compared the profits of the two films, the actor reiterated this stance. "No need to knock us, we're new babies and have to grow," Johnson said on Twitter.
Besides its box office numbers, Black Adam received a lukewarm critical reception, with many praising Johnson's performance but criticizing much of the film. However, Black Adam did significantly better among audiences, scoring 89% to the Critic Score of 39%. This massive discrepancy caused a debate among fans of DC and the film itself, which argued that audience scores should hold more weight when judging the quality of a movie.
Black Adam is now streaming on HBO Max.
Source: Twitter